The present invention relates generally to railroad track maintenance and construction, and more particularly, to an apparatus for applying rail clips onto rail ties, preferably concrete rail ties.
While long accepted in Europe, the use of concrete rail ties to replace wooden ties is becoming more popular in North America. One common installation technique used with concrete ties includes providing the ties with embedded threaded inserts for receiving rail clips and fasteners. The tie, clips and fasteners are provided in an assembled condition. Well-known assemblies of this type are manufactured by Vossloh AG (www.vossloh.com). After placing the rail on the concrete ties, the fasteners are loosened and the rail clips are placed over the rail in a gripping position. The fastener is then tightened until the rail clip and the rail are secured to the concrete tie.
The process of manually installing and removing clips and fasteners to secure rails to ties is tedious and time consuming. These issues led to the development of devices that automatically perform the application of such rail clips. Thus, one design criteria of such an apparatus is to rapidly apply preassembled rail clips. Conventional automated devices require the operator to walk behind the unit.